The focus on obesity is heating up, and the food and beverage industries are taking much of the blame for its occurrence, accused of 'continuously creating high fat, incorrect carbohydrate, high salt and high sugar content food'. Consumers, too, are tired and angry about misleading advertising and hidden ingredients that pile on the weight.

When it comes to the biggest event on the sporting calendar, it's wise to put your house in order or face a crisis - this applies to the food and beverage industry as much as any other (beginning on 26 July, the Olympic and Paralympic Games will last for six weeks). We explore how it could affect - or be of interest - to the SA food and beverage sector.

As a rising player on the world stage, South Africa has a number of firsts and improvements of which we can be proud. Something we should be less satisfied with, however, is our rapidly increasing body mass index (BMI). According to an Imperial College of London study, the mean BMI of South African men has risen from 23.1 to 28.7 between 1980 and 2008.

The art of baking has remained unchanged for millennia, but a number of factors play a role in what's hot and cooking. Convenience, premium products, health and wellness, nostalgia and comfort, and global, exotic flavours are driving trends in the bakery industry.

Labelpak stands out in the local industry in that it's one of the few companies to offer a complete range of printing technology for the production of labels, including offset, flexographic, UV flexographic and digital reel-to-reel.

Already known for their extensive range of potato chips, McCain has diversified and added a sweet potato series of chips to its stable. 'Despite its ancient origins dating as far back as 8 000 BC, the processing of sweet potatoes into French fries and other products is relatively new,' comments Stuart Wortley, sweet potato procurement manager with McCain Foods (SA).

Staying on the topic of environmentally-friendly, naturally-produced and sustainability, we're thrilled to report in this month's edition that the South African wine industry certainly is alive and well. Despite a declining rate of exports from the more traditional countries like the UK, (the slack is slowly being taken up by more non-traditional markets, and particularly those on the African continent, like Nigeria.